The transition to digital video and audio has cause a regression in the convenience of home theater systems. For composite video or S-Video, integrated audio-video receivers are readily available that will switch both audio and video signals. A single button press on a remote control selects an audio signal and the corresponding video signal.
With the advent of digital television, and component, DVI and HDMI video connections, present mainstream consumer receivers are generally no longer capable of providing this level of convenience. As a workaround, audio switching is performed using the receiver and video switching is performed using the television. This procedure is cumbersome for the user, generally requiring the use of two different remote controls and in many cases, trial-and-error.
While home theater receiver feature sets will undoubtedly advance to allow switching of many digital and analog video sources, a solution is required to allow such switching in systems using receivers only capable of switching analog video, or analog video and a limited number of digital video sources.